Don't open any 'storm' attachments - or other socially engineered gems

Don't open any 'storm' attachments - or other socially engineered gems as "U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza..." and "A killer at 11, he's free at 21 and..."

For readers following European weather, you know that hurricane force winds have battered Europe, killing many (also here). Into this breach poured a botnet Trojan masquerading as a storm update. It spread rapidly across Europe but by the time it hit the US in significant numbers, the major AV vendors had added it to their watch list. But many individuals live in a highly connected world and so had already received the tainted traffic from Europe.

Bank on the next major storm or shattering political event in the US to see this Trojan re-released here, but with a different signature.

THINK BEFORE you click! - If it is something you know is designed to short circuit your good judgment, you are likely right.

Remember that you already have news feeds that are unlikely to be taken over by spoofers. Use them, not something that you get in an attachment. Even from me.

As I was adapting this item from an earlier internal note to colleagues and clients, the prediction came quickly true:

Joining only two previous states, the US and USSR, the PRC "successfully carried out its first test of an antisatellite weapon" by downing "an aging Chinese weather satellite" in low earth orbit - the same orbit that many US reconnaissance satellites inhabit. With a potential "antisatellite arms race" in the offing, we shortly received two satellite-related items on Friday evening:

While Senator Mark Dayton (D-MN) is in the news as he leaves the Senate and mulls a run for governor, he is not dead. That did not prevent us from receiving two notes, same title, different apparent senders, claiming that terrorists had attacked the Supreme Court and that Dayton was dead on Saturday morning: